David Alan Grier Talks Twitter Police And Race In Comedy

David Alan Grier Talks Race, Comedy, And Leslie Jones Controversy

David Alan Grier knows a thing or two about mixing race and comedy. From his breakthrough days on the hit series "In Living Color," to his recent skit “How To Tell Black People Apart” on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the comedian has proved he knows how to get a laugh out of people no matter how tough the topic.

Race continues to play a major role in comedy, most recently prompting criticism and debate over Leslie Jones' SNL skit. Grier recently shared his thoughts on the skit during a Huff Post Live interview about his new series "Bad Teacher."

“I loved it, but we also live in a time of the Twitter Police.”

Grier has a point. Just earlier this week Black Twitter took to policing the “Dear Abby” advice column when a mother asked “Abby” if her son’s “twerking” was the same as “getting high." Although some questioned whether or not the post was real, others responded with a slew of hilarious fake #DearAbby tweets with ridiculously off-base questions related to popular black culture.

Black Twitter's response to Jones' sketch was similarly swift and opinionated.

But despite the criticism, Grier complimented Jones’ audacity, “she could fit right in with In Living Color, The Chappelle Show -- with that hardened and different perspective that Saturday Night Live really needs.”

Grier also recalled how the "In Living Color" team approached racial comedy.

"For us the beauty of it is, that we did what made us laugh," he said. "The fact that we were mostly artists of color, that made it made it political. We never went into it going ‘we’ve got to be political man, we gotta take this down.’ No, we were just trying to be funny."

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot